1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a steam generator heated with the cooling gas of nuclear reactor, arranged in a vertical shaft clad with a metal liner within the reactor pressure vessel, with an in-line blower installed above the steam generator in the vertical shaft, with two gas conduits entering the vertical shaft, the lower one of which serves to introduce the hot gas and the upper one to exhaust the cold gas, and with feed water and live steam lines leading out from the reactor pressure vessel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A steam generator with the characteristics set forth above is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,604. It is part of a nuclear reactor plant housed in a reinforced concrete pressure vessel, with the nuclear reactor being installed in a central cavity. The installation comprises a plurality of steam generators of the aforedescribed type and the same number of auxiliary coolers with blowers following them in line. All of these components are located in vertical shafts arranged around the center cavity. The center cavity is connected with the vertical shafts containing the steam generators with two gas conduits each, the lower one of which carries hot gas and enters the shaft under the steam generator, while the upper gas conduit exits from the shaft in the area of the blower outlet and returns the cold gas into the reactor cavity. The feed water and live steam lines for the steam generators leave the vertical shafts at the bottom and are lead out of the prestressed concrete pressure vessel in the downward direction. This has the disadvantage that they are not accessible for recurrent tests and maintenance measures.
The state of the art further includes a straight pipe steam generator described in West German Offenlegungsschrift No. 28 54 499 for a nuclear reactor plant which again is installed in a lined recess of the reactor pressure vessel. Here again, the feed water and live steam lines exit at the bottom from the recess. The hot gas enters through an upper conduit into the recess, with the conduit being connected with an inflow hood surrounding the upper end of the nest of tubes. A lower conduit provided for the cold gas is fixedly joined with a cold gas conduit surrounding the compensation area and connected at the bottom with the jacket of the steam generator.
West German Offenlegungsschrift No. 29 03 644 discloses another steam generator heated with the cooling gas of a nuclear reactor; it is installed in a recess of the pressure vessel. In the case of this steam generator the hot gas is again introduced in the upper area and the cold gas exhausted through a conduit exiting at the end of the recess. However, the feed water and the live steam lines exit on top on the frontal side from the steam generator, so that it is not possible to arrange the associated blower over the steam generator. The feed water and live steam line is in the form of a coaxial conduit and is lead to the outside through the roof of the recess. The nest of tubes, which consists of bayonet tubes, and the jacket of the steam generator are suspended from a support plate, over which the feed water distributor and the live steam collector are arranged.